By Ank Kuipers
PARAMARIBO (Reuters) -Suriname’s former President Desi Bouterse will not report to jail, his wife said on Friday, after he was asked by prosecutors to turn himself in to serve his sentence for involvement in the murder of 15 activists more than 40 years ago.
A three-judge panel in December affirmed the convictions of Bouterse and four others in the 1982 execution of the government critics, including lawyers, journalists, union leaders, soldiers and university professors.
“He’s not going to turn himself in,” the former president’s wife, Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring, told journalists near their home in Paramaribo.
Bouterse, 78, dominated politics in the former Dutch colony for decades and left office in 2020. He denied the charge but was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
One other man convicted alongside Bouterse also failed to report to prison, the public prosecutor’s office said.
Bouterse’s failure to show up is not a surprise, said Sunil Oemrawsingh, a relative of one of the victims and president of advocacy group ‘Foundation December 8, 1982’.
“It would be a bad thing though, that the public prosecutor’s office did not keep an eye on convicted murderers,” he said.
(Reporting by Ank KuipersWriting by Oliver Griffin)
Comments